The Serve

Cats steamroll tiring Bombers

The emotion of Adam Ramanauskas’ latest return from cancer and James Hird’s 250th game carried the Bombers for the opening three quarters against Geelong, before injuries and a rampant Cats side took their toll.

Hird’s milestone night was over midway through the second quarter when he limped off with a right ankle injury. Ramanauskas had a mixed evening, botching an easy shot on goal in the second term, before finally getting his goal in the third quarter.

Alwyn Davey sustained a broken arm just minutes before Hird’s injury, and with Mark McVeigh also struggling with a leg problem, the Bombers were left with a skeleton bench.

The Cats led at each change but couldn’t break away until the final term. A double to Mathew Stokes gave Geelong a 22 point lead and the contest with was effectively over. The Cats were merciless, piling on seven goals to one in the final term to clinch their ninth consecutive victory, its greatest run since 1991.

“We knew they were two down, but we knew we were two down last week (against Sydney) and that played a big part in our (not) running that game out”, said Paul Chapman, who booted three goals for the Cats.

“Everyone’s just doing their job and if we keep doing that, we’ll be hard to beat”

The game attracted a near capacity 51,000 crowd at Telstra Dome, with the occasion not lost on Geelong.

“I felt a bit of inspiration playing a game that involved those two”, said Tom Harley.